chrisbridge

Hiya

I have a quick question if anyone can help...

Basically I need to get my RPL skills assessment off soonish but
I am nearly ready to sit the Sun Java programmer certification exam. I'm sure this will help my application but I would be interested to hear if anyone knows how significant this sort of qualification is in the eyes of the ACS.

As it stands I've got:

* 3 years IT experience at IBM
* IBM accrediatation as an 'IT Specialist'
* A fair few techie training courses under my belt
* A year's programming experience from my Ph.D.
* Plenty of people happy to provide references

BUT no formal IT education.

Any views gratefully received.

Cheers

Chris

Inked

Cant answer your question specifically, but in my experience, the assessors do show a distinct lack of understanding of current IT – in fact on talking to one of them on the telephone about my case, he admitted that he was not from an IT background!!! . If you are going for recognition of a specialisation, make sure your references say you are a specialist in…. rather than consultant in.. as I did. I’m an IT consultant with over 20years experience in IT with most of my last 5 years working as a consultant in internet security, and e-commerce.. this was not acceptable evidence of being a specialist, I had to have my references rewritten more specifically to state Specialist in this.. specialist in that … .. etc.. assume they are pedantic and you will be ok - I think this is the way to treat the ACS.

Having said all this, a qualification that is internationally recognised, or that they can equate easily to an Australian qualification may well be good. Maybe one for one of the immigration consultants.. ups.. SPECIALISTS, in this newsgroup to answer for you.

In the end, I gained STNI from the Vic Gov, so the ACS understanding of the word specialist became irrelevant in my case

Best of luck ..
Joe

Lana

I'd send it right now, with plenty of samples of your work and very well-filled out forms. Certificates help, but in the end work experience is the most crucial thing.

If you need any help with the RPL, you can email me. I've filled 3 forms (husband and 2 friends) and helped 3 other people through email and so far, so I know a bit about the forms by now.

My email is janainav-at-vlsweb-dot-com-dot-br (Sorry for that, don't want any more Viagra spam in my email box )

Lana

And Joe is right - the more detailed the letters are, the better. We first thought straightforward was best, just saying "was an analyst programmer using so and so languages, for 40 hours a week, from January 1996 to July 1997". BIG mistake. They asked for new letters of almost all of them, and as a result our RPL took 11 months.

The next time I did it for my friend, we got letters that were so detailed they were repetitive, and ta-da, 4 months later, a positive assessment.

ptlabs

Chris,

You should be aware that without at least 6 years of relevant IT work experience, you stand virtually no chance of getting a positive RPL assessment. On top of the 6 years, you'll need at least one additional year of SOL work experience to satisfy the basic requirements of DIMIA.


Peter